Miami Heat: Don’t Worry About Hoops, Get Well Soon Chris Bosh

Two NBA championships, over 17,000 career points, being recognized as an All-Star every year since 2006 for a grand total of 11 times, an All-NBA selection, and being identified as the perfect prototypical championship stretch power forward. All of these accomplishments and accolades have fallen in Chris Bosh’s hands since he entered the league in 2003 as a freshman from Georgia Tech. Bosh clearly has had a magnificent career up to this point in date. The awards he’s won would leave most of his peers jealous they didn’t get the opportunities he’s gotten. But it’s the passion that Bosh plays with. It’s the reason why he’s been able to have such a wonderful career. It’s also that same passion that drives Bosh today to continue to attempt to play basketball in spite of his ongoing medical condition with blood clots.

Miami Heat power forward Chris Bosh shooting.

However, even though Bosh might be one of the most thoughtful, intelligent and passionate players in the game today, is it time for him to get more selfish? Should Bosh start thinking more about himself instead of his team and make sure that he’s healthy and able? Yes, it is.

With all of the praise, love, attention from fans, and, more importantly, cementing his place in NBA history, what else is there left for Bosh to do in his career? Is it time that he leave the game and work on his own health?

“Guy means so much to not only the Heat family but his personal family as well. Just a great guy, a professional, a great guy and for something like this to happen to him after he was cleared, it just sucks. It sucks big time. His health is the No. 1 care and obviously basketball comes secondary to what he’s going through right now. It’s just tough.”

– LeBron James

That family that James was referring to is only getting larger in the Bosh household. Bosh’s wife, Adrienne, is expecting twins soon and Bosh will then have five children in his family including a wife that will need his full attention. Ultimately, Bosh has a lot of different people counting on him to get back to full health and his life situation is much deeper than basketball at this point.

For the organization of the Miami Heat, they’ve dealt with this type of issue before. Back in 2001, Alonzo Mourning at the time had a kidney condition that caused him to miss the first five months of the season. But even after his health scare, Mourning would make the All-Star game in the following year (02′), but was forced to retire from the game in 2003. Granted, Mourning made a comeback to the league and eventually went on to ring as a member of the 2006 Miami Heat, he still had to retire in order to focus on getting himself well. It might be time for Bosh to follow in his footsteps. At age 31, Bosh still has enough of a window open if he would want to return later when he’s completely healthy.

Miami Heat teammates Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.

“That’s the beauty of it. It’s not supposed to make sense. I didn’t expect to win a championship, let alone two. I didn’t expect to be able to play with LeBron and Dwyane at one point. I didn’t expect to have Hall of Fame teammates, you know? I didn’t even expect to be as good a player as I’ve been.

– Chris Bosh

Bosh himself said it. His career turned out better than he expected and he should hold his head up high. If there’s any feeling of guilt on Bosh’s behalf, then they should be killed no one wants to see him out there playing until he collapses. Everyone around the city, the organization, his family and the people of Miami all respect his game and respect what he’s done for the organization since he’s arrived in 2010. We all want to see Bosh get back to full health and if that means retiring to do it, then so be it.

Who would’ve imagined that the skinny kid from Dallas, Texas would become one of the greatest players in NBA history? Now Bosh lives in Miami with a beautiful wife, five beautiful children, two max contracts signed, a few endorsement deals, his own business, and will be a sure-fire Hall of Famer when he’s eligible.